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Youth Impact Report 2025

Sport in Mind is the UK's leading mental health sports charity, using sport and physical activity to improve the lives of children, young people and adults experiencing mental health challenges. The 2025 Youth Impact Report covers the past 12 months of delivery across nine English regions, reaching 6,552 young people through sport sessions and school workshops. All programmes are delivered hand-in-hand with the NHS and co-designed by people with lived experience of mental illness. Key outcomes include 72% of participants reporting improved mental wellbeing and 91% more likely to be active outside sessions. The charity was founded in 2010 and holds a Queen's Award for its programmes. Work spans inclusive weekly sessions, school assemblies, and an interactive youth wellbeing journal used across 40+ schools.

Report snapshot
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About

Weekly inclusive sport and physical activity sessions for young people with mental health challenges; school workshops and assemblies on mental health and resilience; interactive youth wellbeing journals; NHS-partnered co-designed programmes; youth community sessions across nine regions of England Custom geography from upload: England (Berkshire, Greater Manchester, Sussex, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire)

Key Metrics

Key Metric 1 6,552 children and young people supported through sport and education programmes in the last 12 months
Key Metric 2 5,698 school children educated about mental health and resilience through workshops and assemblies in over 40 schools
Key Metric 3 854 young people supported through weekly youth community sessions for mental health recovery

Key Outcomes

  • 72% of children and young people reported improved mental wellbeing since attending Sport in Mind sessions, with 91% more likely to be physically active outside of sessions — delivered in partnership with the NHS and co-designed by people with lived experience
  • Sport in Mind youth journals showed strong outcomes: 92% of young people had fun using them, 86% now recognise the benefits of physical activity for mental health, and 100% of teachers said they would use the journals again
  • At the point of the report, over half a million young people were waiting for CYPMHS treatment in England — with half waiting over a year — providing urgent context for Sport in Mind's community-based sport and mental health model as an early intervention pathway

Geography

Other

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
Total income £18,180,000 and total expenditure £18,560,000 (year ended 31 December 2024, charity no. 1084958 England/Wales and SC039654 Scotland); in 2024 spent £3.8m on...
Key Metric 2
700+ members supported through in-person visits and support calls in 2025; 697 support grants allocated in 2025 for essential items including specialist clothing, cooling...
Key Metric 3
Largest global investment in EB research to date: multi-million-pound drug repurposing trial provisionally agreed with LifeArc partner at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation...
£34,000 raised in 2025 winter appeal supporting families like Darcie's with specialist items, emotional support and research; 697 support grants delivered in 2025; first Members Connect event in Northern Ireland; EB Priorities Setting Partnership study completed providing global research roadmap
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
22,507 households helped through RBL casework and specialist support services across 66 countries
Key Metric 2
22,600 grants given to those in need, totalling £11.8 million
Key Metric 3
733 beneficiaries represented at tribunals, resulting in £24.5 million in War Pensions awards
1,548 new families living with dementia supported by RBL Admiral Nurses service
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
3,600 blind veterans received support across the UK; 447 new blind veterans started receiving support in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
1,598 referrals to rehabilitation services completed; 313 veterans received assistive technology training
Key Metric 3
997 volunteers donated 26,824 hours of support; befriending service awarded Quality in Befriending Excellence — one of only 11 organisations in the UK to...
1,831 National Creative Wellbeing Project packs issued to help veterans reconnect with creativity and independence
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
349,000+ people completed the Know Your Risk tool to assess their risk of type 2 diabetes in 2024
Key Metric 2
£4 million invested in 17 new research projects; total active grants portfolio worth over £45 million
Key Metric 3
32% of people completing NHS England's Path to Remission programme — which Diabetes UK campaigned for — put their type 2 diabetes into remission
Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge invested over £23 million in 19 projects across 161 experts from 47 institutions in 8 countries since 2022